What Is Wet Hosing?
Wet hosing, also known as mobile fueling or on-site fueling is where a fuel truck directly fuels company vehicles and equipment (trucks, cranes, bulldozers, etc.) at a company’s location.
How Wet Hosing Works
- Fuel truck comes to your specified location
- The driver individually fuels all vehicles or equipment that need fuel
- The driver keeps track of how much fuel goes into each vehicle (usually using a scanner to scan the trucks assigned bar codes that reports to an electronic inventory system)
- The fleet manager receives the data in their online wet hosing fuel account
Why Use Wet Hosing
The two major benefits to wet hosing are fuel inventory control and convenience. Wet hosing is a great way to control your fuel usage because you don’t have to worry about driver theft and misuse at fuel stations. However, it is not fullproof unless you actively monitor your fuel usage to make sure that drivers aren’t siphoning fuel out of the trucks’ tanks on their routes. For example, if you notice that a driver starts a route with a full tank and comes back at the end of the route almost empty and they should have half a tank, there is probably theft taking place.
With DOT time regulations and expensive driver labor time, convenience is important. Wet hosing does not require a drivers’ time to fuel their trucks, which allows drivers to be on the road from the start to the end of their shift. Wet hosing is also convenient because it is mobile. For example, some companies such as construction companies get their equipment wet hosed at a specific job site one month and then a different job site the next month. In addition, these job sites might be miles from the nearest fuel station.
What Is The Cost Of Wet Hosing
Wet hosing is usually more expensive per gallon than other fleet fuel management methods such as onsite bulk fuel tanks or fleet cards because you have to pay for the company to transfer the fuel and have an employee service your entire fleet.
However, it can be more cost effective because you won’t have the upfront cost of installing and maintaining an onsite fuel tank or the cost of paying your drivers the extra time to fuel at a fuel station. At the end of the day, you have to compare all the cost and benefits to see which option is best for your fleet.
Alternatives To Wet Hosing
The two main alternatives to wet hosing are onsite bulk fuel tanks and fleet fuel cards. Bulk fuel tanks are basically like having a fuel station on your property. Fleet cards are cards that are used to purchase fuel at commercial and retail fuel locations.
Wethosing Vs. Fleet Fuel Card: Which Fuel Program Is Right For Your Company
